TEHRAN, Iran - Iran warned Sept. 16 it will not respond to every adverse claim about its nuclear drive, after a damning report from the U.N .atomic watchdog left the global community divided about future action.
Amid fears that one response might be a U.S. or Israeli strike on Tehran's nuclear program, a top aide to Iran's supreme leader again raised the specter that Iran could bring oil shipments from the Gulf to a halt if attacked.
"We are against offering the agency an open door once more and that they expect Iran to respond to any claim," said Alaeddin Borujerdi, head of parliament's national security and foreign affairs commission.
He was commenting on a Sept. 15 report by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) that accused Iran of stalling over a probe into its nuclear work and said it was continuing uranium enrichment in defiance of U.N. demands.
"We do not think there should be an open forum so America can bring up a new claim every day and pass it on to the agency, expecting Iran to address any claim," Borujerdi was quoted as saying by state news agency IRNA.
Iran's envoy to the U.N. atomic agency also warned that Tehran would only cooperate within the framework of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and its safeguard agreements.
"We continue cooperating with the IAEA but they should not expect us to apply the additional protocol," Ali Asghar Soltanieh told state television.
Iran stopped applying the additional protocol, which gives inspectors broader access to its nuclear sites, after the nuclear case was referred to the U.N. Security Council in 2006.
The IAEA complained it was making little headway in probing allegations that Tehran has been involved in studies to make a nuclear warhead, as Iran refused to provide access to documentation, individuals or sites that could reveal the true nature of its activities.
Tehran said the alleged weapon-related studies were based on fabricated documents and that it had provided the IAEA a 117-page response in May addressing some of the agency's questions.
The United States, which is spearheading moves against Iran's nuclear drive, warned that Tehran could face possible new sanctions in the wake of the IAEA report. France seconded those suggestions, while China said sanctions would not resolve the stalemate.
High-ranking diplomats from the United States, China, Russia, Britain, France and Germany also will meet in Washington on Sept. 19 to discuss Iran's nuclear drive.
According to U.S. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack, the officials will "discuss the way forward."
Uranium enrichment lies at the core of fears about Iran's nuclear program, as the process can make nuclear fuel as well as the fissile core of an atom bomb.
Iran denies Western claims it is seeking to build atomic weapons, insisting that it wants nuclear power to provide energy for a growing population.
Amid high diplomatic tensions, a former head of Iran's Revolutionary Guards repeated an oft-stated warning that those forces could halt vital shipping in the Gulf.
Their missiles can cover the entire width of the Gulf and "no ship can cross it without being within range," said General Rahim Yahya Safavi, now an aide to supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
"Our armed forces with their defense equipment including missile, air, naval and torpedo capabilities are able to control the Strait of Hormuz."
An estimated 40 percent of the world's oil passes through the Strait, a narrow channel between Iran and Oman. Iran has warned in the past it could block the waterway if it comes under attack over its nuclear program.
The Guards form the country's ideological army, with their own ground, navy and air forces operating in parallel with the regular armed forces.
Referring to a potential Israeli attack, Safavi said: "The Zionist regime does not have the necessary political, economic and social capabilities to wage a great war."
He also warned U.S. military forces in the region of "serious danger" in case of war, but said he believed Washington "will definitely not get involved in a fourth front after the Afghanistan, Iraq and Georgia confrontations."
The Army's Future Combat Systems (FCS) program is ready to test a few components that soldiers may have in their hands by 2010.
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